What a Tank Holiday Winter Camo

The plan, at some point later today, is to crack on with the winter whitewash camouflage on the Soviet tank ensemble, using a basic stipple brush approach to layer on some random splodges of white. The end result, fingers crossed, will look something like the artwork above. I'm a bit nervous about this as it can be overcooked, so I'm not going to rush into it and splodge the white paint all over the place with abandon, sticking instead to a 'less is more' approach. In the meantime, I've washed the engine decks with GW Nuln Oil to add some depth to the grills and will be also be base coating the tracks with varied layers of Foundry Bay Brown.

What a Tank Holiday Drybrushing

I've now dry brushed the assembled late war Soviet tanks and assault gun in a 75/25 mix of Flames of War Russian Green and Vallejo Yellow Ochre, in order to highlight the details. Even though these are quick build kits, the level of detail on the engine decks, running gear and turret tops is pretty impressive, so it makes sense to give them a good dry brush to make them pop.

They will all be getting a winter camouflage coating over this, however, so I may well be wasting my time! I thought about adding a final very light flick of white as well but decided not to go that far. I will be doing a black ink pin wash though, once the whole camouflage thing has been completed, in order to pick out the panel lines and engine grills. I'm really enjoying this!

Quick Build Big Cats

I spotted an Italeri quick build kit for two Tiger I's on eBay, so grabbed them at a very good price before they disappeared. These will fit in very nicely alongside the Armourfast Panthers that I ordered this morning. It's a good start to the German force for What a Tanker! but a couple of MkIV Ausf H would be even better, especially as they are the bog standard starting point tanks for 1944-45 in the rules.

What a Tanker! Weekend Wrap Up

I have now assembled, undercoated, base coated and washed the four additional tanks for the What a Tanker! late war Soviets, so will be able to start the dry brushing and track painting to tomorrow. I have also failed to locate the Armourfast Jagdpanther kit that I vaguely remembered having in the loft but I did dig out three vacform building kits that would be good as terrain features. These came from the local car boot sale a few years ago but have literally been gathering dust ever since. The machine gun bunker is a particularly neat little kit but will no doubt be a right pain to glue together!

What a Tanker! Weekend cont...

I've now washed the tanks I built yesterday in a mixture of Future, Agrax Earthshade, Gryphon Sepia and Black Indian Ink. They are looking much better than I thought they would, to be honest, so I'm quite pleased with the progress thus far. They need to properly dry off but the weather is with me for a change, so that shouldn't take too long. Next, I'll do a dry brush in Russian Green / Yellow Ochre, a combination that worked really well on the Russian tanks that this chap has been painting:

http://kitnoob.blogspot.co.uk/

I've also started building the rest of the tank force including another Sherman 76mm, a Sherman 75mm and two more Il-2's, which should round out the late war tank options until I can get some T34's. I have ordered some T34/76mm already, along with a couple of Panther G's and two detailing sets from Armourfast. These are produced by Early War Miniatures and look great for adding stowage, crew and the odd missing bits from the Armourfast models.

I also think I have a box of Jagdpanthers in the loft somewhere????

What a Tanker! Soviet Starters

The weather is great today, so most of it has been spent out and about, leaving me with little time to get started on the What a Tanker! weekend project, let alone the Desert Spitfires planes. I have assembled three kits, however, an IS-2 and ISU-152 from Italeri and a single Sherman 76mm by Armourfast. I have three more tanks to glue together tomorrow, once I've pressure washed the patio for my sins, to make up a small Soviet tank force for Winter 1944-45.

I did have some Armourfast T34/85's but they are the old version which are really crude, so I've left them in the loft. I will definitely get some new T34's though, as you can't have a Russian tank unit without them! I'll slap some paint and an ink wash onto the basecoat tomorrow, so they should start looking a bit more like proper tanks, with the winter snow whitewash camouflage to follow. I'm not going to spend more time than I need doing this, as I really should be focussed on the Wings at War project.

What a Tank Holiday

I just went up into the model shop / loft to dig out the Armourfast kits that I have stashed away for a rainy day. These are the leftovers from an old Rapid Fire! project that no one at the club was interested in, as Blitzkrieg Commander had just come out and it was stealing all the thunder. Anyway, as you can see from the pile of kits, I have late war British, American and Russian starting forces pretty much wrapped up. I'm thinking of a Winter 1944 theme, so that I can use my existing snow terrain and do some nice winter whitewash effects on the Russian tanks or just bite the bullet and do Normandy with the British stuff?

What a Tanker! Weekend

The What a Tanker! rules arrived yesterday, so I have dug out a couple of my old Corgi 1/50th scale tanks for a run through over the weekend. The Sherman is a re-paint but the Panther is straight out of the box. This makes it easy to set up a game but, in the longer term, I'm seriously considering a switch over to 20mm or 1/72nd scale using the Armourfast range and whatever old Airfix kits than I can dust off for the purpose.

I have some of these kits left over from a Rapid Fire! project and they would be a much cheaper option than going large in 28mm, especially now that the Corgi diecast tanks are so expensive. The only issue would be terrain, as I don't want to have to make lots of 20mm scenery that I wouldn't otherwise use? It would, however, make it quicker and easier to build a good selection of tanks for a progressive campaign, opening up the possibility of some early to mid war multiplayer action as well. 

What a Tanker Dashboards

I've printed and will soon be laminating a set of 'dashboards' and cards for What a Tanker!, so that I can set up a playtest game at the weekend to try out the rules. The print and laminate option is fine with me but I have also seen some laser cut mdf dash board kits now available from Dark Ops, including dials and sliding panels instead of using counters. They also have a drop in section so that you can add individual written or printed notes for each tank. They're only six quid each so I may get a couple for my own use but the paper and plastic coated version will do the job in the meantime.

Desert Spitfires: The Israeli Bombers

I'm rushed off my feet at the moment, so have had no time for any painting but the long weekend should get things shifted, especially as the management is going to Cornwall for the duration so I'll not be tasked with diversionary 'things'. In the meantime, I've cracked on with the Israeli Air Force, putting together a light aircraft flight, a heavily hacked about B17, a couple of Beaufighters and Harvards and a second C47 Dakota.

The light aircraft are a mix of Stinson Sentinels, a Dragon Rapide and a re-purposed Japanese army Ki-51 Sonia liaison plane pretending to be a Vultee Valiant trainer. I really need a couple more of these light aircraft, to make two flights of three, and perhaps another B17 but this is a pretty good start. Next up will be the Spitfire IX's, P-51 Mustangs and, last but not least, the Avia S-199 Mezek's